With the March 25 election closing in, NSW Farmers believes that securing the state's future food production should be a critical focus for voters.
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The agricultural body has launched its 2023 state election platform, which outlined five key pillars for the growth and success of the people of NSW.
NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin said strong supply chains and resilient food and fibre production to keep food prices affordable would be critical for politicians, with polling revealing more than two-thirds of NSW voters saw the cost of food and groceries as their biggest concern.
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"Today's latest poll shows the majority of people are concerned by rising food prices," Mr Martin said.
"Disjointed food supply chains or infrastructure and continued removal of productive water from farms is contributing to the rising cost of fresh food.
"This is what we're focused on when we're talking about a stronger future for farmers and for our state, making sure we can grow those healthy plants and healthy animals that people need and get them onto people's plates in a timely and affordable way.
"Each of our five key pillars tackles a key issue facing farmers, and we've outlined some common-sense ideas about how to address them."
The five key areas NSW Farmers believe collaboration between industry and the NSW Government is essential to secure the future of farming and food in the state include:
- road and rail infrastructure;
- biosecurity;
- farm productivity;
- workforce; and
- land use pressures.
About 135,000 people were employed in the state's food and agribusiness sector, contributing $23.1 billion to the economy in the last year alone.
And with 8.265 million consumers of food and fibre in NSW, Mr Martin said the agriculture sector needed policies to support growth and resilience, and strategic investment from government to meet the needs of businesses and communities.
"Sustainable and secure food and fibre production needs to be a priority for decision-makers," Mr Martin said.
"It's not just flooding and COVID that impact food production and supply, it's things like ageing infrastructure, water buybacks, the threat of various pest and disease incursions, and chronic worker shortages that all stand in the way of productivity.
"Meanwhile, the shift towards renewable energy generation and the drive to build more housing will require a balancing act to make sure we don't sacrifice productive farm land in the pursuit of social and environmental outcomes, because once you build on that land it's lost forever."
Polling results (conducted by Resolve for NSW Farmers):
- Ninety-three per cent rated the cost of living as an important issue to them and their NSW vote choice, including 74pc rating it as 'very important'. This puts it in top place, just above health care, the economy and infrastructure, and well ahead of all other issues (including problem gambling).
- Confirming this finding, just three pc stated that none of the cost of living pressures we listed were of concern to them. Fully 67pc nominated the cost of food and groceries, beating all other categories by some margin (utilities and medical expenses are also quite common, but it's much more of a worry than interest rates, housing and car costs).
- Labor have a small lead on the question of who is best to manage the cost of living (eight-points, 35pc to 27pc), but it's pretty neutral and adds to a list of contestable positionings for the parties in an election year.
- In short, cost of living is an important voter issue, food is a big part of that, and no party holds a monopoly on an issue that voters want fixing - it's politically important to do something.
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